10 Cars to Drive Before You Die

Arguments are frequent in our office, and sometimes they even have to do with cars. On topics such as comparison-test winners, 10Best, and the proper way to brew a pot of French roast, our wide range of opinions and preferences quickly outstrips our civility, and whittling down the list for this story came close to inciting a riot. In this year alone, there are more than 400 vehicles available in the U.S., so to sift all of global automotive history down to just 10 great cars to drive before you die was a momentous task. No doubt some of your favorites didn’t make the list. We sympathize. Some staff members still aren’t speaking to each other.

Ultimately, we settled on the cars below because they are the representations of their respective eras in automotive development, the purest distillation of what we consider to be necessary automotive traits, and because these 10 would provide a person a broad and comprehensive overview of automotive history. And our readers decided on the 11th car because the S2000 forum at www.s2ki.com pulled together for an unmatched campaign effort in our blog voting. (For the record, the second-highest vote-getter was the Bugatti Veyron, followed by the McLaren F1.)

Ford Model T

Compared to many of the cars in this collection, the prospect of getting behind the wheel of a Model T Ford may seem a trifle tame, not to mention primitive. Just 20 horsepower, two forward speeds, three foot pedals (one for reverse), advance the spark, retard the spark, a top speed of about 40 mph—novel, but hardly a thrill ride.

However, the unique part of this experience is cultural. Driving a Model T gives the operator a portal into the dawn of the automobile age, the era when cars made the transition from toys for the few to an everyday necessity for the many. It can be argued that more people learned to drive in a Model T than any other car ever, and that no motor vehicle has had a bigger influence on history. At one time, shortly after World War I, half the cars on the planet were Model T Fords, a fact that makes the prospect of actually driving one a bit more plausible than some of the other cars arrayed here. When Model T production ended in May of 1927, after a 19-year run, the tally stood at just over 15 million. A good many of those cars have survived—experts estimate at least 25,000—in good running condition. There may even be one in your neighborhood.

Duesenberg SJ